Lil' Kim Adopts Bad Gal Patois for 'Dead Gal Walking' Return

Everyone is throwing back to their halcyon days of late. Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is presented as a sequel to his turn-of-the-millennium classic, and now Lil' Kim is gearing for the November 29 release of Hard Core 2013, a mixtape whose title harks back to her never-been-topped 1996 debut Hard Core. The Brooklyn-born Queen Bee's last official album came in 2005 and her flirtations with the free-music game have been spotty (see Black Friday), but new song "Dead Gal Walking" is a strong return. The former Junior M.A.F.I.A. member adopts a dancehall patois to spit fierce melodic fire over a horn-blaring, dubbed-out, stuttering hulk of a beat. The song arrived on Halloween, begging the question: Since she and Miley Cyrus are "besties" (via Idolator), was the Bangerz star's costume a ploy to shine some of that glaring light on Lil' Kim? Either way, "Dead Gal" offers more than a glimmer of hope.